In legal, adult-use markets, sales of extracts are growing ten times faster compared to the sales of dried cannabis, and extracts account for over 60% of revenue. With legalization, consumer preferences are shifting from dried cannabis to extracted cannabis products.
However, the scent and flavors of cannabis can be undesirable in many infused products because of excess lipids, plant matter and impurities present in currently available extracts.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,155,767 to Hospodor et al. relates to the extraction of medicinal cannabis compounds into an eluate, by separating a portion of medicinal cannabis compounds contained within a portion of eluate at a first extraction target level, to provide enough clean solvent to continue extraction operations. A high efficiency concentrator processes eluate from one or more tanks, creating clean solvent when extraction targets are met or when clean solvent is exhausted. This manages eluate concentration levels and limits the quantity of concentrated medicinal cannabis compounds on site at any moment in time.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,700,368 to Flockhart et al. relates to the purification of cannabinoid oil from plant material. The high degree of purity for the final cannabinoid oil extract is obtained using a combination of chromatography techniques and different types of solvent for preparing the cannabinoid oil extract and removing any insoluble impurity therefrom.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.